


Gingers and Charmed Suits

by consideritalljoy



Series: The Magic of Marriage [1]
Category: Howl's Moving Castle - All Media Types
Genre: (though movie fans may like it too idk), F/M, Fluff, Hair Dye, Romance, this is about the book not the movie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-02
Updated: 2018-04-02
Packaged: 2019-04-17 10:39:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14187096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/consideritalljoy/pseuds/consideritalljoy
Summary: Howl dyes his hair ginger and Sophie is determined to find out why.





	Gingers and Charmed Suits

Sophie was just readying lunch when Howl swaggered back into the room after even more than his usual two hours in the bathroom. It was a very good thing indeed that Sophie was just putting down her cutting knife as he did, for when she looked up, she let out a small shriek. 

Howl’s hair was a vibrant red-tinged blond. Really, it wasn’t blond at all. It was ginger through and through. 

“Mixed up your dyeing spells again, I see,” Sophie remarked as she regained her composure.

“No such thing,” Howl assured her. He strode purposefully to each mirror throughout the castle, taking each one down in turn and laying it backward against each wall so that the backs were showing instead of the mirrors. 

“What are you doing?” Sophie asked. She finished preparing the food and washed her hands. 

“Mirrors are terribly out of fashion in the greater community of interior design these days, my dear Sophie. It simply won’t do for us to continue so blatantly displaying them. Whatever would the neighbors think if they saw that their illustrious wizard was out of fashion? Why, they may even think I were getting old! No, it won’t do. The mirrors must go.”

Sophie didn’t believe a word of it. “Rubbish. You only want the mirrors gone so that you don’t have to look at your hair when it’s that color. But why dye it ginger if you don’t like it?”

Howl’s cheeks reddened slightly and he turned away, acting as if he were adjusting a mirror’s place against the wall, but Sophie knew better. 

“No slitherer-outing,” Sophie ordered. 

“It makes little difference why I chose this particular shade,” Howl said, turning back around with a flourish. He bent slightly at the waist in a small bow and tilted his head back up to Sophie, green eyes sparkling. “I know it won’t matter to you if I look hideous or not.” He extended one hand palm up. 

Sophie rolled her eyes, but even as she did so, she took Howl’s hand and let herself be pulled gently closer. “I don’t see why you dislike it so much to begin with. It’s really a lovely color on you. If I didn’t know better, I should say you were born for it.”

“Good old Sophie. Too good by far to let a little thing like hair color keep her from seeing the best in people.” Howl had her within a few paces. There was really no mistaking his obvious attempts at flirting with her, and Sophie sometimes wondered why he kept trying even after she always made it clear that she wasn’t fooled. 

That said, she could easily think of at least one reason why Howl would keep trying. Sophie did always make it clear that she saw through Howl’s flirtatious games, but she also usually let herself fall into them just the same. The glisten in his eyes was down to a science, she knew, but she did admit that it was a science Howl was gifted in. 

“No charmed suit?” she asked with one eyebrow raised. 

“Why, Sophie! You know I hung that old thing up after you went back to your proper form. I only use it for the most special of occasions these days.” He moved within a single step from her and clasped her other hand. “Shall we go take a look at it upstairs, together?”

Sophie couldn’t help but giggle. “Not now. We should eat while the food is warm.” At Howl’s prolonged, and obvious, true, but somehow endearing smolder, she added, “Perhaps later tonight… I’d like to ruffle that newly dyed hair of yours.”

“Aha! So you do like the ginger then!” Howl exclaimed, letting her go and beaming knowingly. 

“I’ve never denied it. I think ginger is your color…” Sophie stopped. “You sly thing, you dyed it just for me, didn’t you? That’s why you’re taking down the mirrors. You don’t like it yourself but you knew I did. Oh, out with it. I’m right, aren’t I?”

Howl adjusted his face so that he could look at Sophie with a side-eyed glance. “Anything for you, my dear.” 

“Howl Jenkins, I ought to smack you for making all this fuss,” Sophie stated, but there was no flatness to her voice. 

“Honestly, my dear, you ought to be grateful I didn’t pull out the charmed suit from the start, the way you’ve been acting.”

“The way I’ve been— Wait,” Sophie said, interrupting herself. “I was so busy with the flowers last week that I don’t believe you and I were ever once in the same room for longer than five minutes. Is that what this is about? Did you really think I’d simply forgotten about you?”

“That young man in the shop…”

“He was a wedding planner, buying roses by the dozen! Of course he was bound to come to the shop a few times last week. I never— Did you really think I—” Suddenly, Sophie found herself laughing. “Did you think I fancied him?”

Howl’s composure finally looked shaken. “A little,” he said, blushing again until his cheeks were nearly the same shade as his hair. 

“Now I really ought to smack you,” Sophie squeaked in between laughs. “But if you really felt you needed to try something so drastic as a hair change to catch my attention again, it would seem your trouble is punishment enough. Any hair color will do, Howl—I would have thought you to know that by now.”

Howl’s blush receded a little and he stood straighter again. “Silly of me, I know. But still, even so… about upstairs…”

Sophie threw her kitchen towel at him and laughed as she pushed a plate of food in his direction. “Later.”


End file.
